Knox College Theatre presents "Round Dance," by Arthur Schnitzler, directed by Neil Blackadder, at 7:30 p.m. nightly, Wednesday, February 16 through Saturday, February 19, in Harbach Theatre, Ford Center for the Fine Arts, on the Knox campus in Galesburg, Illinois. The play is intended for mature audiences. Admission is $8 for adults, $5 for students and senior citizens. Tickets are available at the door.

The play features ten scenes with ten characters who interact in a series of overlapping love stories.

"I became interested in the play because of its depiction of close, detailed interactions among different characters," said Blackadder, associate professor of theatre. "It can be cynical, but it's also very humane."

Schnitzler's work has been both influential and controversial. Considered obscene when it was written in 1897, "Round Dance" was not performed until the 1920s, sparking public disturbances in both Berlin and Vienna. After the controversies in Europe, Schnitzler refused to allow the play to be performed until 50 years after his death in 1932.

Because the play could not be performed before 1982, most people became familiar with it through a 1950 French film version, "La Ronde" with Simone Signoret, which itself was also banned for a time in the United States. The play formed the basis for David Hare's 1998 Broadway play "The Blue Room," which starred Nicole Kidman. The film "Eyes Wide Shut," which also featured Kidman, is based on Schnitzler's novella "Dream Story."

Some scholars view Schnitzler as a early feminist, Blackadder says. "That's not just because the women generally come off better than the men," he says. "It's more that Schnitzler was not reflective of the attitudes of his time, the 1890's -- that he was able to see past the double standard that imposed harsher rules on the sexual conduct of women."

The play opens, and closes, with a pragmatic Prostitute, played by Brianne Benson, above.

The double standard: The Husband Brian Conley (above) declines to tell his worried Young Wife Meghan Reardon (below) about his extramarital affairs. But he's clear on how shameful it is for a wife to be unfaithful.

Turns out that the Young Wife has her own lover, The Young Gentleman, played by Alex Enyart, below.